I have no idea who the owners of Meshack's over in Garland have fellated to garner so much love. I went by there and tried it. According to my binary rating system, it doesn't suck. My favorite around here is Mac's Barbecue on Main Street in Dallas.

Nope, I'm not wrong. The best barbecue is from EASTERN NC. You missed a word.

+1

/ where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great

Ab-so-farkin'-lutely.

There's good evidence that French explorers watching Native Americans smoke meat on the sand of what is now Carolina Beach south of Wilmington were the first Europeans to witness barbeque. They used a vinegar they made from sour apples to help preserve the meat.

Any list of BBQ joints should start with Jackson's Red Oak and Flip's in Wilmington and work westward including King's and Parker's and Stameys. By the time you get to Lexington, you might have your list of 100 restaurants filled, but you can find a few there to help pad things out.

BBQ is the only redeeming quality of the south. When they rise again, and we tell them to please, please go, we will ensure that the United States military continues to allow us unfettered access to the meat.

THIS.You have to wait two to three hours in line to get Oklahoma Joe's, and those people are by no means slow. The fact that the list is all Texas leads me to believe the author is too. I've been to Texas, their Bbq blows, even in Plano.

The best BBQ I've ever had was this BBQ rib sandwich they do at my local McDonald's. They only bring it out for a few weeks out of the year, because the cooking of it would overwhelm them on an everyday basis, but dang it is worth it.

uksocal:The best BBQ I've ever had was this BBQ rib sandwich they do at my local McDonald's. They only bring it out for a few weeks out of the year, because the cooking of it would overwhelm them on an everyday basis, but dang it is worth it.

Which style? Central Texas, West/South Texas, or East Texas? All are very distinct and a completely different experience.

Now, if you would have said "Texas has the best BEEF BBQ," you'd be correct.

Now that you mention it, all I've ate for Texas BBQ was beef. I'm a Canadian who travels a lot for work. I've been to KC, Memphis, St. Louis, tons of other cities in the South and my favourite BBQ always was in Texas (been to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston and other smaller towns in between) and I always ended up preferring the the BBQ beef brisket. I never liked beef brisket until I went to Texas. It was quite the revelation. I like it better than pork BBQ in other places and I never thought that would have been the case.

There's no need to plod around the giant state of Texas to choke down a bit of dry brisket doused in Kraft sauce and then follow it up with some jalapeno sausage. Here in one city, Kansas City, we have our pick of world class BBQ because we better meat and better sauces. You can keep your list if it makes "y'all" feel better!

they're cognates. that was all that my point was supposed to make. in the south, people have taken a dogmatic and very limiting approach to barbecue.

personally, I prefer to broaden my culinary horizons as opposed to limit them. these bbq arguments always tick me off, because it's too much about style and never about substance.

to me, bbq is cooking dead things with fire/smoke. every region has a special way of doing it. if someone were to say their favorites, I'd be happy, but instead it's a long debacle about how everyone else is wrong.

my only standard is taste. history is only helpful if it tastes better.

Which style? Central Texas, West/South Texas, or East Texas? All are very distinct and a completely different experience.

Now, if you would have said "Texas has the best BEEF BBQ," you'd be correct.

Now that you mention it, all I've ate for Texas BBQ was beef. I'm a Canadian who travels a lot for work. I've been to KC, Memphis, St. Louis, tons of other cities in the South and my favourite BBQ always was in Texas (been to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston and other smaller towns in between) and I always ended up preferring the the BBQ beef brisket. I never liked beef brisket until I went to Texas. It was quite the revelation. I like it better than pork BBQ in other places and I never thought that would have been the case.

There are ribs, pork, etc on the BBQ menus in Texas, but beef is by far the big deal down here. That and smoked sausage. You'll find a lot of the ribs are beef as well. Texas is where they invented cows for eatin' so brisket and real fajitas are in abundance here.

pute kisses like a man:Rent Party: abhorrent1: I will give props to TX for Stubb's BBQ sauce. Otherwise I still think we should wall them off from the rest of the country.

My father in law keeps the good whiskey for him, and the "regular" whiskey for everyone else.

I keep the Stubbs for me, and the "regular" sauce for everyone else.

/ Served on the side.

stubbs makes an awesome sauce. furthermore, stubbs is an awesome live venue joint. however, it's a terrible place for barbecue. they've really let the restaurant quality slide

/ yeah, stubbs is a bar. btw.

Yeah, great sauce doesn't = Great BBQ. Take Rendezvous. Great sauce, Meh, on the food. Finding a place that does both right is the trick.There's a place about 4 blocks from my house called Johnny's. You can smell it a mile away. It's run by some 400 year-old black woman with a heavy southern accent. I had high hopes, but was severely disappointed. Only ate there once. The home made sauce was great but they don't sell it separately.

Northern Mexico, South Texas and West Texas are all locations where you tend to find more barbacoa, which is generally where they bury the meat being cooked. Goat (Cabrito) is one of the more popular things for this, but we've done it with pig heads, cow heads, etc too. We've also thrown ribs and brisket in there as well so all of the flavors could meld together (sort of a like a turducken).

Don't get all pious with your foodie non-sense. Distinctive styles and flavors are regional, and in Texas, we have multiple distinct styles for Barbeque/Barbecue/BBQ/Bar-B-Q/Barbacoa, etc.

Having lived in TX and thoroughly sampled BBQ there before moving to St Louis, I can say this list fails without mention of City Market in Luling, TX.

Also, KC and StL BBQ are very different than Texas style BBQ, so probably should be on a separate list.

I've been to the NYC joint- Hill Country (my cousin was raving about it and took me there). It pales in comparison to basically every BBQ I went to in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. It's not even in the same ballpark- it's not even the same sport.